


Photo Reminiscing

by MissOfTheTruestBlades



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Flashback, Friendship, mutual pining IF YOU SQUINT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 00:01:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10650825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissOfTheTruestBlades/pseuds/MissOfTheTruestBlades
Summary: Based on GMM Season 1 Episode 98.16 year old Rhett and Link have a photo shoot.





	Photo Reminiscing

**Author's Note:**

> It's me again. Thanks to those of you that keep commenting on my Rhink stuff! I will always respond eventually, I'm just slow. I should be preparing for an exam and instead here I am writing more of this. Well...enjoy!
> 
> -M

Link eyed Rhett up, reaching for the last two pictures they were going to show to the Mythical Beasts. As they mentioned on the show, they had debated whether to show these pictures in such a public setting, knowing what implications their shirtless backs might have in the imaginations of their viewers. They had decided to go ahead with it though, because ultimately they were two pictures from a long time ago, and of nothing more scandalous than their bare backs. They weren’t even together in the pictures. Innocent, really.  
What they didn’t show the viewers was the rest of the collection.   
*Flashback*  
“I’m so bored,” complained Link, lying on the floor of Rhett’s living room.   
“Me too,” agreed Rhett, also lying on the floor of Rhett’s living room. There was silence as they both continued to feel bored. Link pulled out his current disposable camera. It was number 3 of the year. Link took a lot of stupid photos that he spent a lot of his money developing. Link fiddled with the back, popping open the film casing and closing it again with a snap. Open. Snap. Open. Snap. Rhett put his hand on the camera to stop the annoying noise. There was more silence.  
“I know!” yelled Link, sitting upright quickly. “Let’s take pictures!” Rhett frowned.  
“You always do that. It’s boring.”  
“No, but let’s do something different today. Like…portraits.” Just then, Link remembered the plastic flower his Mom kept in the junk drawer for no apparent reason. “Momma’s got a fake flower. We could make like a portrait series with the flower!” That sparked ideas of photography greatness in Rhett’s mind, so the two of them scrambled off to Link’s house to get the flower.   
They took turns photographing each other with the flower, Link trying to convince Rhett not to look at the camera, which Rhett kept forgetting (or deciding purposely not to do, Link wasn’t sure). After a half dozen or so, even their master photography wasn’t holding their interest.   
“I know what we should do,” Rhett suggested after posing by a bit of graffiti. “We should do model poses. Like model our jeans or something, like they do in magazines with no tops on.” Link made a skeptical face.  
“We aren’t models Rhett. Nobody wants to see use without our tops on.” Rhett nodded enthusiastically.  
“That’s the point! It’s an artistic statement. Like, model pose with artistic framing, but not model-perfect subjects.” Link mulled that over and then agreed that the idea sounded quite excellent. Who knew? Maybe he and Rhett would end up becoming world-famous photographers one day, with this as the starting point for their career.  
The friends took a couple of shots shirtless, staring into the distance. They started with shots of each other’s backs, then fronts, then fronts in stupid bodybuilding flexing poses. It was extra ridiculous considering how little muscle either of them had. Then they took a few photos together, mostly model-style things where one of them would stand and the other sit, angled to look stylish and mostly failing because one of them had to hold out an arm and take the picture without being able to see what the camera was capturing. Later, when the pictures were developed, there would be one particularly strange shot of just bare male torso, as the camera had managed to catch Link’s upper right chest and the whole left side of Rhett’s chest and armpit. Rhett told Link to get rid of that one and a few other blurry failed shots, but Link secretly kept it anyways.   
The pair made their way to an old barn in the middle of nowhere. It had only two walls and a roof, and it was surrounded by trees and overgrown grass and weeds. This was a favourite spot for Rhett and Link, because nobody else ever came there as far as they could tell, so they could sneak alcohol out there or do stupid and dangerous things without having to worry about getting caught or accidentally hurting anyone. They had on more than one occasion blown things up in the vicinity. They’d also had a few girls in the hay…separately of course. They would give each other the heads up so they wouldn’t accidentally wind up there with girls on the same night.   
Rhett took a shot of Link standing in the barn, fingers in his belt loops, smirk on his face. He then walked over and stuck his head next to Link’s, poking him in the stomach and managing to take what would turn out to be quite a good picture of the two of them laughing. By that point they were getting tired, so the pair flopped down next to each other on the old piles of hay.   
“We should do a boxer shoot,” Link mumbled, half to himself.  
“What was that?”  
“A boxer shoot. Like be ironic underwear models to complete the set.” Looking back, Rhett would have no idea why he thought this was such a great idea. It was two lanky teenaged boys in an old, dilapidated barn, taking lame photos of each other wearing nothing but underwear. But at the time it was brilliant. The poses began modest, Link in particular almost curling in on himself as if to hide from the camera. But then they fell into their usual pattern of silently trying to one-up the other, and Link ended up straddling one of the poles holding up the barn, a promiscuous look on his face as he stared into the camera.   
Rhett’s brain sort of short-circuited at that point, and he found himself almost subconsciously walking over to his smaller friend, pressing up against him and holding his arm out as far as it would go to take a shot. That was the one photo Rhett would steal from Link and swear he’d lost but would keep forever. Link looking confusedly over his shoulder at Rhett, but with a hint of a smile ghosting his lips. Rhett smiling broadly, with a dazed look in his eyes, staring right back at Link. Rhett’s body snug against Link’s. Link’s body curved backwards slightly to accommodate his twisted head.   
That was the last photo. When Link grabbed the camera to wind it again it made the noise that signalled the end of the roll of film. The boys laughed about their model abilities and headed home for dinner.   
*End Flashback*  
Rhett had half-jokingly tried to convince Link that they should show the viewers the boxer collection. Link had punched him and didn’t look amused. That had been one of many moments in their childhood that was a bit odd if they tried to explain it to anyone else. Moments that just didn’t quite seem like the sort of things friends did with each other. Rhett was always amused thinking about them, while Link seemed almost ashamed whenever Rhett brought them up. Rhett didn’t get it. It was just them being stupid kids and best friends. They were closer than most best friends so they had smaller personal bubbles, less things that seemed weird or off-limits to them. Link just flashed back to the teasing and rumours that had occasionally centered around the pair. Rumours that continued today on the internet, although in a much less malicious spirit. So he didn’t like Rhett joking or bringing those sorts of moments up. They were confusing, now just as much as in the past.   
In the end they had showed only two bare-torso photos, one of each of them, both backs only. The ‘safest’ of the model shoots. When Link got home at the end of the day, he fished through his box of keepsakes, finding the false bottom and pulling out the failed photo of their chests. He smiled gently and looked at it for a while, eventually placing it back in the bottom of the box once again.   
When Jessie and the kids were asleep for the night, Rhett went to his closet and pulled out an old photo album. From behind a photo of him and Link at a birthday party (age 9), he pulled out the boxer model photo. Rhett gently traced the curve of Link’s exposed torso, smiling as he looked at their facial expressions. Then he too gently replaced the image in its hiding spot and went to bed. The last thing he did was text ‘Goodnight buddy’ to Link. The last thing Link did before sleep was smile at the buzzing of his phone on the nightstand, knowing his best friend was thinking of him, the way he was thinking of Rhett. They drifted off to sleep.


End file.
